Secrets of the Dead (2000–…): Season 19, Episode 6 - The Caravaggio Heist - full transcript

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

-On the small Mediterranean
island of Malta,

Caravaggio's masterpiece
"Saint Jerome Writing,"

disappears.

♪♪♪

-It was one of the prized
exhibits of the museum

and of Malta itself.

-We checked for shoe marks,
for footprints,

but there was
very little evidence

pointing to these people.



-For two years,
we heard nothing at all.

And then one evening,

a young man came
and knocked at the door.

And he had an envelope.

And inside it was a Polaroid
picture of the "Saint Jerome,"

cut off the stretcher,
with a coffee pot on it.

-Father Zerafa was the curator
of the National Museum.

He was receiving telephone calls

from the people
who had stolen the painting,

asking for money for
the redemption of the painting.

-"The Caravaggio Heist."

♪♪♪

-"Secrets of the Dead"
was made possible in part by

contributions to your PBS
station from viewers like you.



♪♪♪

[ Indistinct conversations ]

-You're gonna wait outside,
get the car started.

Don't move from there
until we give you the signal.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

-As I recall the story,
and as it happened,

this theft reads very much
like a piece of fiction.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

The thieves had all the time
to visit the museum.

They paid the tickets.

♪♪♪

They went upstairs.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

To avoid being discovered,

they put up
a "works in progress" sign,

so that tourists would not go in

and discover all that
was happening... ♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

...removed the painting,
and put it on the floor...

♪♪♪

...cut out the canvas
from its frame... ♪♪♪

♪♪♪

...rolled it, and threw it out
into the street

from the adjacent balcony.

♪♪♪

-Then it seems that
an American tourist

came to see
the "Saint Jerome."

She saw the chain,
she got annoyed,

she went to complain
with the curator.

The curator went up

and, obviously, got
the shock of his life,

because the Caravaggio
wasn't there,

just an empty frame
lying on the floor.

♪♪♪

Well, this is
how it all started...

I got a phone call.

That was the wife
of the curator of Saint John's,

and she said, "Something
terrible has happened."

I couldn't even make out
what she was saying.

So I said, "Let me speak
to your husband."

And Mr. Cutajar
came on the phone.

And they said these words...
"They've stolen our Caravaggio."

♪♪♪

And I was afraid
he would have a heart attack

because he was so...

I mean, it was such
a terrible shock for him.

-We went there,
we found a frame without...

Without a painting.

There was very little evidence

pointing to these people

at that material moment in time
in 1984.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

-The Maltese islands
are strategically located

at the heart
of the Mediterranean.

More often than not,
the history of the islands

is also the history
of the Mediterranean.

Let's go back in time,

when the Order of Saint John
is granted the islands in fief

by King Charles V of Spain.

-The Knights of the Order
of Saint John

descended from some
of the most important

noble families of Europe,

and they were
certainly accustomed

to living a life of luxury,
having around them

the best works of art
that they could obtain.

They were people of means.

-Three elements come together...
The knights,

with a strategic territory
in their hands,

and the money and willingness
to promote culture.

We do know that, by July 1607,
Caravaggio was in Malta.

There's only one thing
that comes to mind

when I think about
this genius...

He was an "enfant terrible."

-Because he got into trouble
with the law so often,

we still do have some records
from his court hearings.

And, normally,

it is the other witnesses
who would describe him,

that he had this
long, black, curly hair,

and he had dark black eyes,

and he strutted around Rome
with a sword.

And he would very often
disappear for two months

and just throw himself
into a work of art.

And then, after that,
spend another month in Rome

just walking in the streets,

drunk, visiting wine bottegas
in the company of courtesans.

So one can see this
turbulent character that he had.

-When Caravaggio came to Malta,

he was already
an accomplished artist.

He was in Rome.

He had already reached

a high level of achievement
and popularity.

But, unfortunately, his
temperamental and violent nature

soon got him into trouble,

and in a duel,
he killed his opponent.

It's unlikely that Caravaggio
wanted to kill him.

Apparently, they were rivals
for the same courtesan,

and his intention, in fact,

was to castrate him
and not kill him.

And he had to flee from Rome,

because there was a bando
on his head.

That means there was a price
for his head.

-Why did Caravaggio
come to Malta?

The main reason is that
he wanted to become

a knight of Malta,
and his friends knew too well

that this ambition was too
attractive for him to let go.

By doing so,

Caravaggio would have hit
two birds with one stone...

On one hand, he would have
required a papal dispensation,

which meant that his crime in
Rome would have been forgotten.

On the other hand, he would have
become a member

of the prestigious
Order of Saint John,

which also meant
that he could carry a sword,

a knight to all intents
and purposes.

Caravaggio stood out
from his fellow artists.

He frequented the taverns,

mingled with prostitutes
and commoners.

Those same prostitutes
that were later to become models

and the subject matter of
his paintings and his artworks.

-He had a particularly
soft spot for courtesans,

and he spent a lot of time
with them.

Maybe he, in a way,

must have had
a gracious character with women.

In fact, Fillide, we believe,

was this lady that he used
many times in portraits...

She is the Saint Catherine,
she is often Salome,

and we keep on seeing
the same face.

So we can see

that he had a certain affinity
for even low life.

He affiliated himself
with these...

With these types of people.

-He had a very particular vision

as to how sacred art
should be interpreted,

and his projects were also met
with applause and disdain.

-There was this conflict
within the church itself,

wanting realism

and then finding realism
far too shocking for them.

And Caravaggio was often mocked
about his realism,

and, in fact, he often got
into trouble for it.

♪♪♪

When he came here,

he obviously wanted
to impress the Grand Master.

He was probably also
being patronized by some knights

that he had come across in Rome,

and one of them
was Ippolito Malaspina.

Ippolito Malaspina was
a very influential knight

because he was a Grand Cross.

And for him, he painted
the "Saint Jerome."

So we see Saint Jerome,
seated at his desk.

He's bare-chested because
he is exercising penance.

This is why there is a stone
on his desk.

And this is where we start
to see Caravaggio's ability

to enter into
the motions of the mind.

When you look at the
"Saint Jerome," it's almost...

There are moments
when you actually forget

that it's a painting.

It almost looks like
a photograph of a real person.

♪♪♪

Caravaggio really went into
great detail.

Again, he challenges himself,

he uses a very restricted
palette.

There are hardly any colors,

except for the red
that he uses for his mantle.

He's in a very simple room,
at a monk's desk,

and on it there are
three important symbols.

There is a skull, because
he's meditating on death,

there is the crucifix,

because he's meditating
on the life of Christ,

and there is a rock.

And he's bare-chested
because if he...

If he lacked inspiration,

he would use the rock
to exercise corporal punishment.

Because a lot of people ask,

"Why... Why...
Why is he bare-chested?

It's an unusual position
for a saint."

But this is what Caravaggio
wanted to portray...

His extreme spirituality,

his extreme dedication
to religion,

and I believe that this is
one of his finest paintings,

where he really achieved what
he wanted the viewer to feel.

-A few days
before his masterpiece

is officially presented,

Caravaggio gets involved
in a huge brawl

happening in Valletta.

He is immediately arrested
as one of the suspects

and imprisoned
at Fort St. Angelo,

from where he mysteriously
escapes a few weeks later.

♪♪♪

-Caravaggio does not
stop in 1610.

In fact, "Caravaggism" is a term
that we use today

to describe the chiaroscuro
and his style of painting,

and a lot of great masters after
him were influenced by him,

such as Rubens, who was painting
in Rome in 1620,

and Rembrandt soon after.

The chiaroscuro and the
modeling with light and shade

and the realism remained
very much a part of art.

♪♪♪

-Caravaggio was controversial
during his lifetime,

and continued to be so
even after his death.

Fast-forward to 1984,
and the drama unfolds yet again.

♪♪♪

-When a painting is stolen,
anything can happen.

The best museums...

I mean, from Amsterdam,
they stole the Van Gogh,

from the Marmottan in Paris,
they stole the Monet,

okay, at one time
they stole the "Mona Lisa."

So stealing paintings
is not a new thing.

In Malta it was exceptional

because it was stolen
from a church.

-Let's not forget
that what we take for granted

and as a given,

as far as security measures
in any museum today,

was not the case
at this point in time...

No CCTV cameras,
no alarm systems,

nothing of this sort

that would have prevented
this crime from happening.

-Obviously, important paintings
are well-known,

they're published in books,

Interpol has got a list
of these paintings, and so on,

but important paintings
are stolen and not recovered,

as the famous case
of the Palermo Caravaggio.

♪♪♪

-Caravaggio's "Nativity"
in Palermo

had been stolen
a few years before,

and this painting is still
on the FBI's list

of most wanted
stolen works of art.

♪♪♪

-I'm probably
one of the few people remaining

that really saw it
before it was stolen.

It was in a chapel
of San Lorenzo.

There was a court case,

and there was a pentito
from the Mafia,

and he said that the Mafia had
kept this painting in a room,

and the rats had destroyed it.

I never believed this.

I mean, the Mafia
are not stupid, okay?

At one time, they say, "We have
another Caravaggio in mind,"

and that could be ours.

-It was feared back then
that Caravaggio's "Saint Jerome"

would end up
very much the same way...

Stolen and untraced.

-We heard... were told

that they had phoned Sotheby's
or Christie's in London,

offering a Caravaggio,

and, obviously, they didn't
take them seriously

because you can't sell
a Caravaggio.

In fact, our Caravaggio was in
all the books, okay,

and we had informed Interpol,

so there was no chance
of selling it in an auction.

-The thieves didn't actually
manage to find a buyer.

Who would touch a work of art
like this?

Not even the greediest
of collectors.

And that actually is proof
that the painting is priceless.

♪♪♪

-Nothing is known about
the whereabouts

of the "Saint Jerome,"

and it seems that the painting
is lost forever.

-For two years,
we heard nothing at all.

Two years,
we heard nothing at all.

And then one evening,

a young man came and
knocked at the door... ♪♪♪

...and he had an envelope,

and I could see that inside
there was something else.

There was "personal"
written on the envelope.

And I said... he said, "I've got
a letter from Mr. Borg."

Everybody's called Mr. Borg
in Malta,

so I said, "Who's he?"

He said, "He lives next to me."

So I said, "Thank you,"
and he left.

♪♪♪

I opened the envelope,

and inside was
a smaller envelope.

And on the smaller envelope
was written,

"Father,
do not open this envelope

until you listen to the tape

and see that, when you listen
to the tape, you are alone,"

because in the big envelope,
there was also a tape.

Obviously, what I did...
The first thing I did...

I opened the small envelope,

and inside it
was a Polaroid picture

of the "Saint Jerome"
cut off the stretcher

with a coffee pot on it.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

All of a sudden, I mean,
I got up, rushed downstairs...

...but he had disappeared.

It was late in the evening.

So he had disappeared
in the crowds outside.

Then I listened to the tape.

That was quite frightening.

♪♪♪

The tape said,
"We've got the Caravaggio.

We tried to sell it in Europe,
tried to sell it in America.

Are you interested?"

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

They asked for half a million
Maltese lire

and emphasized the fact that
I was not to tell the police,

not to tell the press,

otherwise,
they would burn the tapestries,

blow up Saint John's,
very unpleasant things.

He gave me his password,
"Merisi."

And he said that the next week
he had to phone me.

In fact, he phoned the next day.

[ Telephone rings ]

The happiest day was when
this young man brought

this letter with the tape.

It was frightening
to listen to it.

People say, "Were you
frightened, or were you...?"

Said, "I was really happy,"
because after two years

with no reports
at all about the Caravaggio,

and, all of a sudden,
we knew that somebody had it,

that gave us hope.

I said, "At least it's still
existing, it's still in Malta,

and there's a hope
of getting it back."

And it put a heavy load
of responsibility on me,

because I said...
I thought to myself, I said,

"If we don't manage
to get it back,

this will be the end of me."

♪♪♪

-It comes as no surprise
that the thieves got in touch

with Fr. Marius Zerafa.

Fr. Zerafa was the brains

behind the National Museum
of Fine Arts in 1974.

At this point in time,

he was the Director
of the Department of Museums

and was
an authority acknowledged

by the government of the time.

It is also very important
to note

that Fr. Zerafa
is an art historian,

who was also responsible
for the conservation of artworks

belonging to
the national collection,

including those
at Saint John's Co-Cathedral.

♪♪♪

-Unfortunately, I was
very disappointed

because the government
and the monsignor

were not really interested.

So I had to carry on on my own

and my secretary at the museum.

Whenever I went to the Minister,
he would just say,

"Keep the Maltese police out.

Do not involve
the Maltese police."

I got into trouble
with the monsignor

because the man in charge
of Saint John's,

I assume, informed
the Archbishop of everything,

but he was offended
because I didn't inform him.

♪♪♪

-The socio-political
circumstances of 1980s Malta

did not help much.

The theft of Caravaggio's
"Saint Jerome"

was certainly not high
on the national agenda,

simply because the
political circumstances

of the time took priority.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

-If I failed, that would
have been the end of me.

And, you know, you're dealing
with a Caravaggio.

For me,
a Caravaggio means a lot.

So they used to phone me
every day,

sometimes three times a day.

There was one voice...
"Merisi."

And then at one time,
another voice came on the phone.

And I said, "Who are you?"

And then the first man said,
"He's going to take over."

And from then on,
both of them...

You know, I asked him questions

to see whether he knew
what he was talking about.

And then one time,
one person would speak to me,

and another time,
another person,

so there were two people
speaking to me

all the time on the phone.

At the beginning of all this,

the Minister
had asked the Italian embassy,

and they had brought
two officers.

They came over for two days.

They couldn't do much.

They just advised us to keep on
talking to the thieves,

and they suggested trying
to trace the calls,

because in Italy
it's quite common, okay?

They said,
"Try to trace the calls," okay?

They said, "Would you mind
having your phone

put under control?"

I said, "Not at all."

At the time in Malta, we had
a very complicated system.

You phone the person, and you
got someone else, and so on.

So people gave us all sorts
of instruments and things,

but they never worked.

-The conversations happening

between Fr. Zerafa and
the thieves were kept secret,

and very few knew
what was going on.

-I managed to show them
I was interested.

We're haggling on the price.

I managed to lower the price
to a third of a million.

So they thought we were
really interested.

♪♪♪

They would sort of give me
till the end of the month,

and then till the end of
the week to get the decision.

And every time, I had to invent
some sort of excuse.

Eight months of phoning
every day,

sometimes three times a day,
okay?

Sometimes
they were being nice to me,

and I was nice to them.

Sometimes
they were threatening me.

♪♪♪

At one time, they sent me
a letter, an envelope,

and I thought there was a...

In those days,
it was quite popular.

Letter bombs were quite common,

and I thought that they wanted
to get rid of me

because I'd been sort of
just talking to them

without getting to a conclusion,
and I...

I thought they would sort of
have their own back on me.

So I had to take this envelope
on the roof

and attach strings
to the envelope

and pulled it and so on,
and it was just another message.

Every time I went
to the Minister,

I never got any decent reply.

They would say,
"We've got a plan.

The Prime Minister
has got a plan,"

but they never told me
what that plan was.

-Nobody was taking any action
on it.

Zerafa felt that he was
shouldering the whole burden.

He would speak
to the Prime Minister,

but the Prime Minister,
at that moment,

did not take any action
with the police.

So, Zerafa continued to feel
the pressure on him.

♪♪♪

-An important point was when
I went to the Prime Minister

and I said, "Look,
I can't stand this any longer.

I started taking Valium."

So, he said,
"Okay, you can tell them

that we have the money."

Okay?

So, I said to them,
"We've got the money."

So, they said, "Okay, then
we'll bring it back from Italy."

♪♪♪

And I said, "Let's have
the exchange in Florence."

The reason is
I've lived in Florence.

I know Florence very well,

and in Florence, we could get
the help of the Italian police.

But they said,
"No, we don't trust them

because these people
are criminals."

♪♪♪

So, we asked for newspapers...
Photos of newspapers...

With the painting in Florence,
and then in Malta, and so on.

So, we knew that it had
really come to Malta.

♪♪♪

We had a number of instruments
to try to trace the calls.

They would mark the date,
but nothing else.

Okay?
They just couldn't use them.

Then there was
a change of government.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

So, we had a new Minister,
we had a new technician,

and the technician
was more clever, or more lucky.

Before, they had been telling me
that the phone calls

were coming
from the north of Malta.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[ Telephone ringing ]

♪♪♪

He managed to trace the call
to Marsa...

A shoe factory in Marsa.

♪♪♪

As Director,
I had a driver from Marsa.

We went to see the place.

I didn't tell him,
obviously, the purpose.

♪♪♪

I managed to get him
to tell me something

about the people
who worked in the factory

without sort of telling him
what I was looking for.

♪♪♪

So, I got to know
the kind of people

who were phoning me every day.

♪♪♪

At one time,
I went to the Ministry,

got their workbooks.

♪♪♪

So, I had the names
and photographs of the people

working in that factory...
The four girls and four men.

♪♪♪

One had stamped on his workbook,
"Returned migrant,"

and I thought that since
they were phoning all the time,

they had to be
the head of the factory,

somebody who could use
the phone any time of the day.

♪♪♪

This factory exported
and imported leather from Italy,

so they could easily send it
to Italy and bring it back.

♪♪♪

So, I informed the Minister,
and he said,

"Okay, I'll introduce you
to someone who can help you."

♪♪♪

-When I became

Minister of Education
and Culture in 1987,

a former inspector of police,
Alfred Calleja,

who had left the police force,
at that time asked to come back.

He came to speak to me,
and it came to... by accident...

That he spoke to me on the day

when Fr. Zerafa had an
appointment to speak to me.

♪♪♪

They were in my office,
at the same moment,

quite by chance.

But I told Zerafa,

"Look here, if there's somebody
in the police force

who can help us
retrieve the Caravaggio,

I believe this is the man."

♪♪♪

-So, I told him all about
my contact with the thieves,

the conversation,

the bits of canvas they were
sending me at the end...

They were sending me
bits cut off from the painting

to get us to take a decision.

He came here to the priory,
we discussed it, and so on,

and I said, "Okay,
let's catch them now."

And I suggested
the 4th of August

because the 4th of August
was the traditional date

for the feast of St. Dominic,
and I'm a Dominican.

[ Bells ringing ]

[ Band playing ]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

So, you can imagine
the scene in my office

at the Auberge de Provence.

For the first time in my life,
I had a... the door was closed.

♪♪♪

My secretary was sort of dishing
out whiskey and tea and so on,

he was smoking like crazy.

♪♪♪

[ Radio chatter ]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

At the same time,
there was the Army chief

in a helicopter going around.

♪♪♪

-It was agreed the day before
that the police would be

following him from the ground,

and I'd be following him
from helicopter.

♪♪♪

And we agreed that to be able
to identify the vehicle...

The van... for him,

it would have a fluorescent sign
on the roof of the van.

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

We start to follow him
near the shoe factory.

[ Helicopter blades whirring ]

-Zulu 2, preparing to engage.

-Copy that, Zulu 2.

Stand by
for further instructions.

♪♪♪

[ Telephone rings ]

-They phoned,
as they did every day.

♪♪♪

And I said to them,
"There's a lawyer.

Would you like
to have a word with him?"

They said, "Yes, of course."

♪♪♪

He took up the phone, and he
said they were interested.

And he said, "Cut another piece
of the painting

and put it somewhere.

Once we find it,
we'll give you the money."

♪♪♪

At one time,

the officer next to me spoke to
the person on the helicopter,

who had said they are taking
something out of the factory.

So, he said, "Come down
and arrest of them."

♪♪♪

I said no... I held his hand,
I said, "Don't.

Not until we know
where the Caravaggio is."

♪♪♪

All of a sudden, this police
officer sitting next to me

just got up and walked out.

And I just couldn't imagine
what was happening.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

So, I came back to the priory
at lunchtime

and expected to find
this piece of canvas

that they had said
they had put in the letterbox.

♪♪♪

That was probably the worst
moment in the whole episode.

♪♪♪

Normally,
I have a lot of letters.

That day,
I had no letters at all,

and the piece of canvas
wasn't there.

So, I said, "They are playing
a trick on us."

I phoned Mr. Cutajar.

He came over.
I was really, really worried.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

-The only people who knew
about this were the people

who were going to be involved
in the recovery.

[ Engine starts ]

[ Engine revs, tires squeal ]

♪♪♪

[ Indistinct conversation ]

♪♪♪

I could see as well that,
in fact,

they were getting my message
because I could see

the police commissioner's car
following the van, as well.

[ Tires screech ]

-Going after the suspect!

[ Helicopter blades whirring ]

-I would tell the commissioner,
"He's going down South Street,"

and that sort of thing.

I kept giving him
a running commentary.

♪♪♪

And this lasted
about two hours...

Two hours, if not more.

In fact, we were going to
run out of fuel, and we went...

We flew quickly to Luqa,

refueled
and went up again in the air

and continued to chase
from there.

♪♪♪

The police commissioner
was probably

very, very excited, as well,

and probably what was
going through his mind

is that this guy might go back
to the factory

without the police following him
and they'd lose him.

♪♪♪

So, he took this decision
halfway down from Castiel.

He says, "I think it's now
or never," you know,

"I'm going to have to
do something about it now.

I'm gonna grab him,
and then we'll see afterwards

how we're going to get
to the painting."

♪♪♪

[ Tires screech ]

He overtook, went in front
of the car, rushed out...

♪♪♪

...and opened the door
of the driver side,

grabbed the driver out,
and pulled him out.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

♪♪♪

-And in his pocket,
there was this piece of canvas,

which he was supposed to have
delivered at the priory.

♪♪♪

In his satchel, he had a
cutting from the Times of Malta

of two years before,
when the Caravaggio was stolen.

Okay? So, he couldn't argue.

So, he said, "Okay, I'll take
you to where the painting is."

He took them to the factory.

♪♪♪

-One fine day during the week,

I got a phone call
out of the blue.

Remember, we had
no mobile phones then.

This was a phone call
through my secretary.

My offices then were in
another place in Valletta.

I recall my secretary phoning me
up and saying, "Look here,

X wants you urgently because
there are a lot of police."

This is what I got on the phone.

And I got my car,
I went to the factory,

and I found a film scene,
if you understand what I mean...

You know, very sensational,

what you watch on television
over the weekend.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

-So, they caught both men.

♪♪♪

-I observed the whole...
The whole matter evolving.

Everybody's smarter afterwards.

I didn't know then
that the accused

was involved in Caravaggio.

However, thinking back then,
you know,

some things did not surprise me.

In actual fact,
before this blessed day,

when the police appeared
in the factory,

I used to go quite often
to this factory,

and we used to observe a lot of

what we thought were workmen
fixing the curbs there

and cleaning here
and cleaning there.

And this lasted for two weeks.

Afterwards, we concluded

that these were police
watching the factory.

♪♪♪

-We were called
to the crime scene.

We went to the... I went
to the warehouse in Marsa.

I saw the reels
of artificial leather.

There were reels of them,

and it was hidden
in one of those reels.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

-I flew over
police headquarters,

took some pictures from there.

I went off to do a
helicopter flight, got in a car,

and went back
to police headquarters.

♪♪♪

-At 3:00 in the afternoon,

I heard somebody knocking
very loudly at the door.

It was a policeman in service,
and he said,

"We've caught them,
we've caught them."

I said,
"What I'm interested in...

Do you have the painting?"

So, I got into his car and we
rushed to the Police Depot.

And there, there was
the Minister for Justice,

the Minister for Police...

Later the Prime Minister...
Came in,

and the whole group that had
been involved in this recovery.

♪♪♪

-I felt triumphant
in the Police Depot.

This painting,
which had been lost,

and we had retrieved it.

I was proud that it happened
under my watch.

-More important than
anything else was the canvas...

The "Saint Jerome"...
Rolled in a roll of leather.

-It's sad
that the "Saint Jerome"

was damaged the way it was,
with cutting it and rolling it,

because some of the paint
had actually chipped off.

-The thieves rolled the
painting the other way around...

They rolled the painting
with the color inside,

not on the outside,

and consequently,
parts of the painting,

especially on the flesh tones,

where you have the presence
of lead white, was flaking,

and most of it was also lifting.

So, that was a very serious
type of damage.

♪♪♪

-You could see it was damaged,
but at least it was there.

So, I think that was
the happiest day in my life.

I practically fainted.

And there were
a lot of speeches...

Ministers, the Prime Minister.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

-After, they were arrested...
The thieves...

So I thought
that was end on the matter.

What happened was that it seems

that somebody told them
not to deny anything

because their phones
had been tapped.

So, they started the case
saying that the government

had no authority to trace calls.

Both parties had raised...
Had used this tracing,

of course,
but both parties denied it.

Finally, they came out
and they said it was necessary,

but that was the only way
of catching them.

♪♪♪

So, they took advantage of this

and started
a constitutional case,

and that is the first time
that I met them.

I remember one of them,
actually...

I was in court,
and there was this young man

looking rather pale,

and there was a friend of mine
looking after him.

And he said,
"What are you doing here?"

He said 'cause he's on drugs.

-It was this gentleman
who actually managed

to get
the Caravaggio back to Malta.

This Caravaggio was doing
the rounds all over Europe.

My personal opinion
is that the theft

was orchestrated by foreigners.

The person I'm discussing,
who was eventually accused

but never found guilty...
You know, there was just...

There was just charges
put against him.

You know, I mean,
he was not a thief...

He was a very artistic person,
as I said...

However, he was no thief.

And the theft was
so professionally done

that it couldn't have been him.

I wouldn't believe that,

that he would have
actually stolen the Caravaggio.

♪♪♪

Without making a hero out of
our friend, it is with hindsight

I, in my heart of hearts,
believe that he wasn't...

Definitely not what the media
thought about him then.

I'm sure that he wasn't being
seen in a good light then.

Unfortunately, died just when
the case started, he died.

He died a tragic death.

-And his brother said
in the papers

that the people who are bringing
flowers for the funeral

were the people who were
responsible for all of this.

♪♪♪

And then there was a third man.

That was interesting
because when it was all over,

I was with a... this policeman,

who by then had become
Commissioner of Police.

And we're good friends.

And he said, "Let me tell you
something interesting."

He said, "You were
going to be kidnapped."

He said, "They've paid
5,000 pounds to a certain"...

Gave me the name...

"to kidnap you
during the exchange."

And I didn't take it seriously.

I started laughing because
I said, "Now it's over."

They are in, sort of...
Been arrested and everything.

But he said,
"It's no laughing matter,"

he said, "because this man
is a dangerous...

A very dangerous person."

♪♪♪

It wasn't shown to the public
for months and months.

It was kept
at the police headquarters.

Okay?

When we found it...
The first time we found it,

it was taken
to the police headquarters.

We put it in a box
with strict orders...

Not nobody would touch it at all

because it was obviously
a canvas,

was unstretched, very fragile.

So, the police were given orders
not to open the box.

In fact, they opened it.

♪♪♪

Some very shocking things
happened.

When we took it to Rome
to be restored,

I managed to get...

I was very friendly
with the Italian embassy,

and they offered
to let me use a military plane.

They said nobody, no civilian,
can travel with it.

I insisted, so they said,
"You've got to sign.

In case anything happens,
we are not responsible."

It was a terrible flight.
There was no seating.

I had to stand up like that,

and there was
the "Saint Jerome" in a box.

I remember, we arrived
at Ciampino airport.

I remember the officer there

saying
you can't import paintings.

I said, "This is not a painting,
this is a Caravaggio."

Okay?

Then, I delivered it to
the authorities in Rome

for restoration,

and a year later,
I went up with the Minister,

expecting to see it ready.

They had not even
opened the box.

Then, after a long time,
it was restored.

I went up again with
the Minister to bring it back.

The Italian minister wanted
to come back to Malta with it.

So, we were at Ciampino airport
celebrating,

everybody drinking
champagne and so on.

The plane arrived, the painting
was in a box inside another box,

and I realized that the box was
too big to get into the plane...

Special plane
that had been sent.

So, at the last minute,
I had to unscrew the box,

take out the painting,
and hold it by my side.

So, it was a tragedy
from beginning to end.

♪♪♪

-I do remember well
when it came back,

and we went with Fr. Zerafa
to the Depot,

where the painting was placed
in its decorative frame.

If you look at close range,
one could identify

the intervention done
by the restorer...

There are scientific ways
how to do it...

And the original paint layer
created by Caravaggio,

because the two events
are separate.

♪♪♪

What the restorers did
is an imprint of this drama

that the painting
went through in the 1980s.

♪♪♪

-There is a silver lining
to this story,

which has led
to the greater appreciation

of Caravaggio's arts.

The country has since then
come a long way

in the appreciation
of its cultural heritage,

to which
this masterpiece belongs.

-For art historians...
But not just...

A painting serves
as a primary source.

Not only do we learn more about
the artist who produced it,

the location
it was destined for,

the patron who commissioned it,

but also teaches us more about
the context it was created in.

And that is why Caravaggio's
"Saint Jerome"

is so important for Malta.

♪♪♪

-Today, tourists travel to Malta

to see Caravaggio and appreciate
his art and his genius.

♪♪♪

-Looking back on this,
it's a sad event for history.

I think it was a tragic comedy,

and for me,
it was my agony and my ecstasy.

Now I get full satisfaction
looking back

that in some way,
I had helped to restore

one of Malta's
most important treasures.

-No one was ever convicted

of the theft
of "Saint Jerome Writing."

The two men prosecuted
for the crime died

before the trial ended.

Today, the painting hangs
in the Caravaggio Wing

of St. John's Co-Cathedral,
where...

Under careful protection...

It is viewed by half a million
people every year.

Well over 90 years old,
Fr. Zerafa still lectures

and tells the story of how
the Caravaggio was recovered.